Government to crackdown on bad reception

Those who have ever had problems with getting good signal for their mobiles can rejoice as it has been announced that the government plans to put an end to phone signal ‘black spots’.

Under new legislation mobile phone operators would be obliged to improve their coverage and potentially share rival companies’ networks.

This would mean that when a customer loses their signal in a particular black spot, their phone would transfer on to another network which is available in the area. For example, if you were a Vodafone customer in an area which could only access O2 coverage, you would temporarily switch to O2 so that you could continue to use your phone to make and receive calls. It would work in a similar way to when you go abroad and join a foreign network.

Sajid Javid, the culture secretary, has said that he is determined to better the mobile phone experience for users by sorting out the issues that networks have.

"It can't be right that in a fifth of the UK, people cannot use their phones to make a call. The government isn't prepared to let that situation continue," he said.

The proposals that will be put forward, which are at present aimed only towards improving 2G services include that as well as phones roaming to another network when there is no signal that networks would be able to put transmitters on each other’s masts.

It has also been suggested that it should be an obligation that networks cover a certain percentage of the UK, which would hopefully ensure that the number of black spots are contained.

The proposals come after the ‘big four’, which comprises of Vodafone, O2, EE and Three, were unable to reach an agreement to improve their coverage. As a result, the government has had to look at much stricter ways of ensuring that they comply to ensuring that an improvement happens.

With this in mind, ministers have also promised to provide rural areas with £150 million to fund new mobile phone masts.